“Fox & Friends” host Steve Doocy said Monday that former President Trump’s decision to skip the first GOP primary debate this week might wind up being a gift to President Biden.
“By skipping the debates, though, Donald Trump may actually be helping Joe Biden, because he’s giving Joe Biden an excuse for not debating Donald Trump,” Doocy said on Fox News’s flagship morning program, which Trump has been known to watch. “That’s one of the things that [Republican National Committee chairwoman] Ronna McDaniel told the former president when she was trying to get him to do the first debate. But he said, ‘Nope, not going to do it.’”
Brian Kilmeade, another host on the morning show, asked, “How could that be?” suggesting Biden may not want to participate in a presidential debate because “he can’t get through a sentence.”
Last year, the Republican National Committee voted to withdraw from the Commission on Presidential Debates, effectively barring its presidential nominees from participating in general election events organized by the group.
Trump said in a social media post Sunday he had opted not to participate in Wednesday’s event, citing his large lead in most GOP primary polls.
The former president has also said his “hostile” relationship with Fox, which is hosting the first debate, was a factor in his decision not to attend.
Trump’s announcement came just days after a reported agreement for a new interview the former president had struck with pundit Tucker Carlson, whom Fox News ousted earlier this year, a move that is being widely viewed as an attempt to upstage Fox and the rest of the GOP field.